leading insight

Five Attrition Factors and

What You Can Do About Them
B y G e r a l d in e G a r n er

Regardless of economic
conditions, top engineering talent always
has other career options.
During a recession, less
attention is usually paid
to attrition. However, retaining your best
talent is imperative for current and future
competitiveness. There are three primary
reasons. First, attrition is costly. Estimates
place turnover cost at 125% of salary.
Second, most companies are very lean and
their technical bench is not deep. The
loss of one key person can hurt business.
Third, regardless of the economy, Baby
Boomers will retire in the next 510 years;
their trained replacements are in short
supply. The bottom line is that retaining
talent is good business. In order to retain
top engineering talent, its important to
understand why they leave.
Here are five factors that lead to attrition along with strategies for dealing
with each.

1. People and Communication

It is often said that employees dont leave
organizations; they leave people. This is a
common reason for resignations. Friction
or frustration can result from conflicting
communication styles or misunderstandings between managers and employees or
among coworkers. Is this happening in your
organization? Do you have more attrition
from a particular engineering group?
Organizational communication styles
can also contribute to attrition, particularly if communication with employees and
developing employee relationships are not
priorities. Attrition can be the price paid for
lack of communication with employees. Its
important to remember that your best and
brightest will leave for organizations where
they feel welcomed and valued.
Strategy: A key strategy is clear,
concise communication from the top of
the organization about business goals and
expectations. This is crucial when placing
priority on employee relationships and
talent development. Clear expectations are
18

pE May 2008

paramount. If everyone is held accountable

for respecting others and contributing to
their development, the culture will quickly
be enhanced. However, managers cant be
held responsible for development of others
if theyre not clear on how their own career
will develop. Therefore, companies should
have an ongoing process for developing
managers for future leadership roles. As
managers learn what is expected of them
and what to expect of their direct reports,
theyll be better able to develop others.
To assure that new processes and procedures for developing talent are fully implemented, many companies tie compensation
and advancement to talent development.
This strategy assures accountability for
desired changes.

2. Work Assignments
Work assignments are another key to retention. Turnover can result from work that is
repetitive and boring to assignments that
dont allow sufficient work-life balance.

a toll if theyre the only type of assignment

that an engineer has.
Finally, a mismatch between the engineers skill set and the skills needed to
perform an assignment can contribute to
attrition. Working in an area that relies
heavily on a skill that an engineer hasnt
fully cultivated or doesnt possess can lead
to frustration and ultimately attrition. The
reverse is also true. If an engineer exhibits
a unique skill needed by the organization,
management can become complacent and
let the engineer perform the task continually without offering other growth opportunities or cross training other employees
in this area.
Strategy: Some work assignments can
clash with your goal of reducing attrition.
Look at the type of assignments that your
engineers tend to leave. Are they repetitive? Are they overwhelming in terms of
time demands? Have the people doing a
certain type of work, such as CAD, been
placed in a box? Do they want other

It is often said that employees dont leave organizations;

they leave people. This is a common reason for resignations.
Among young engineers, boredom on
the job is often the reason for leaving an
organization. For many engineers who are
expected to work exclusively on spreadsheets and databases, boredom develops
quickly. Yet this is often a common initial
assignment for engineers to learn the organization and how it works. While its important to learn the organization, the nature of
the assignment can result in the intended
lessons being lost.
The reverse can also be a factor. Assignments that are described as 24/7 place
significant strain on engineers and the
people in their lives. Without recognition
and periodic relief, engineers in this situation may leave. Demanding assignments
cant always be avoided, and they are
important factors in an engineers career
growth. However, like the boring assignments, demanding assignments can take

Published by the National Society of Professional Engineers, May 2008

opportunities within your organization?

Research has shown that commitment
is related to assignments that provide
challenge, responsibility, and autonomy.
Working with managers and human
resources staff, its advisable to redesign
work assignments in areas experiencing
low retention.
To assure that work assignments are
related to current and future business needs,
conduct periodic reviews of the engineering
and soft skills needed on the job and for
advancement. Also identify skill gaps within
specific work groups and the organization as
a whole. These critical skills, and the strategies for developing them, need to be clearly
and consistently articulated to employees
by management and HR.
After the skills have been identified,
they should become important factors in
recruiting engineers whose skills match

leading insight

the companys needs. This approach

not only reduces training time but
also allows a new engineer to make
productive contributions more quickly,
leading to higher job satisfaction and
lower attrition.

opportunities? Its important to

communicate how competitive your
company is in these areas. Dont
assume that employees know.

5. The Company

photo credit Roy McMahon/Corbis

3. Perceived or Real Lack of

Career Opportunities
If engineers dont perceive or know
that career opportunities exist, theyll
seek them elsewhere. Some organizations assume that employees know
how careers develop. This can be a
costly assumption. Other organizations believe that communicating how
careers develop will be interpreted as
a promised promotion; therefore, they
avoid these conversations. Again, this
can be a costly mistake.
Strategy: Managers are usually
surprised to learn that a perceived
lack of career opportunity led to attrition,
because they had a clear vision of the individuals career path. Unfortunately, the
vision, or a recommended approach for
career development, was never articulated
to the engineer. Because it takes a long time
to groom talent and todays new engineers
expect to advance quickly, it is important to
have a consistent and clear message about
career development within the organization.
This certainly doesnt mean that promotions
are promised. Instead, guidance should be
provided on how to manage ones career
within the organization.
Some organizations use engineering
development councils for this purpose.
This committee of mid- or high-level
managers designs programs that help
engineers understand what they need to
do to advance within the organization.
Other organizations use HR experts to help
engineers execute development plans.
Begin grooming talent early. It doesnt
have to be costly. Leveraging in-house
expertise, vendor relationships, and local
universities can result in a clear, current, and
consistent message about managing an engineering career within the organization.

4. Infrastructure
Organizations tend to lose employees
when they dont offer competitive compensation. However, todays engineers also
are looking for professional development,
education, and training opportunities to
remain current in their field. When organizations dont invest in their employees,
it becomes challenging to retain top engineering talent. You want engineers who
stay on the cutting edge, because their
knowledge and skills keep your organization competitive. When investment isnt
made in developing people and keeping
them competitive in their field, there are
other organizations that will.
Strategy: Pay them more, and theyll
stay. Thats a popular assumption about
how to reduce attrition and it is important
to stay current on salaries in the industry.
However, its also important to communicate
your total compensation package, not just
salaries. Do you pay for health insurance?
Do you contribute to a 401K plan? How much
vacation and sick leave do you provide? Do
you pay professional membership dues?
What about parking? Do you pay for college
courses or other training and development

Published by the National Society of Professional Engineers, May 2008

Some engineers leave organizations

for reasons that cant be changed. If
someone decides that they want to
work in a different industry, with a
different client base, or in a different
geographic location, retention
becomes a bigger challenge.
Strategy: When engineers leave
an organization because of location or nature of the business, its
important to determine if these are
real or presenting reasons. Some
employees consider these reasons
to be acceptable, and use them
to mask other reasons. Investigate
these reasons further.
When location or nature of the business is the real reason, flexibility might
be needed. All businesses cant necessarily
provide flexibility, but its worth exploring
some unique solutions if attrition is costing
your company revenue, clients, or opportunities. Some possibilities might include
instituting telecommuting, using conference calls instead of travel, converting
full-time jobs to part-time or shared jobs,
setting up satellite offices, and opening
new business ventures.
Increased retention of top engineering
talent is the ultimate goal. Following a
three-step approach will achieve this goal:
assess your attrition situation, identify
strategies that address your issues, and
implement selected strategies.

Geraldine Garner, Ph.D., is a former

associate dean in Northwestern
Universitys McCormick School of
Engineering and now is president of
Science and Technology Career Strategies
Inc., which works with companies and
organizations concerned with retention
of top engineering and scientific talent.
Contact her at ggarner@stcsinc.com.

the magazine for professional engineers

19